Prologue

These papers and the discussions of them were prepared for a conference on “The Intrapsychic and Interpersonal Dimensions: An Unresolved Dilemma,” held in April 1987 to honor the fiftieth anniversary of the Washington School of Psychiatry. Harry Stack Sullivan, a most active participant in the early years of the school, challenged the intrapsychic focus of Freud's theories with his interpersonal perspective, with resulting alternative theories and therapeutic approaches. Conference participants sought to trace how these differences in psychoanalytic theory and practice have been elaborated or resolved in the years since their initial assertion.

In the first of the conference's three sections, Drs. John Gedo and Stephen Mitchell presented the historical perspective, while Drs. Sander Abend and Daniel Stern focussed on theoretical issues. Dr. Earl Wittenberg then offered some informal comments. Next, material from an analytic case was presented, a case chosen for its typicality and because the analyst had been trained in the classical tradition. This material was discussed by Drs. Herbert Schlesinger, Paulina Kernberg, and Ernest Wolf; they seem to articulate respectively intrapsychic, object relations, and self psychology points of view on the therapeutic process. Dr. Edgar Levenson, usually regarded as an interpersonalist, prepared his critique from both theoretical and clinical perspectives. Finally, Drs. Arnold Cooper, Robert Michels, and Joseph Lichtenberg were asked to discuss whether we can solve the dilemma, based on responses to the papers and the case discussion.